A CT scanner purchase is the largest single capital decision most hospitals make. The headline price gets all the attention. The 60% of the cost that arrives after purchase rarely does — and that's where projects either work financially or quietly bleed.
This is the realistic five-year P&L of running a CT scanner in a tertiary hospital, broken into the line items that need budgeting.
Purchase price: 35–45% of 5-year total
A 16- to 64-slice refurbished CT scanner from GE, Siemens, Philips, or Canon (Toshiba) lands in a middle-income hospital somewhere between USD 150K and 450K depending on slice count, generation, and condition. New CT scanners run 2–4× refurbished pricing. This is the number that defines the procurement decision; it's also the number people anchor on.
Site preparation: 10–18% of 5-year total
CT scanners require shielded rooms, structural floor reinforcement, dedicated three-phase power, water cooling for the gantry, and HVAC tuned to maintain operating-spec ambient conditions. Greenfield: budget USD 80K–250K for a complete shielded suite build-out. Brownfield retrofit of an existing radiology room: USD 40K–150K.
This is the line item that surprises hospitals most often — quoted by the radiology vendor as "site readiness is your responsibility" and then under-scoped by the contractor who didn't realise the floor needs reinforcement for a 1,800 kg gantry.
X-ray tube: replaced every 18–36 months
CT tubes are wear items. Tube life is typically rated in mAs (tube current × time), not calendar months. High-volume scanners running 30+ studies per day reach end-of-life in 18–24 months. Lower-volume sites get 30–36 months.
Replacement tubes for current-generation systems: USD 80K–180K. This is the single largest recurring cost in a CT operation and frequently the line item most underbudgeted.
Service contract: 8–12% of purchase price per year
Comprehensive service contracts for CT scanners run roughly 8–12% of the unit's purchase price per annum — covering preventive maintenance, corrective maintenance with response-time SLAs, software updates, and parts (sometimes including tube replacement, sometimes excluding).
Decision point: does the contract include tube replacement? If yes, the contract effectively prices in a tube every 2–3 years and runs 14–18% of purchase. If no, you pay tubes separately. Run the math both ways before signing.
Consumables: 2–4% of 5-year total
Iodinated contrast (Omnipaque, Visipaque) is the bulk of CT consumables — typical hospital throughput consumes USD 40–80 per study in contrast alone. Power-injector consumables, IV access supplies, and patient-positioning aids add another USD 10–20 per study.
A scanner doing 5,000 studies per year burns through USD 250K–400K in contrast over five years.
Software updates and feature unlocks
CT manufacturers release software updates frequently — some are bundled in service contracts, some are paid feature unlocks (advanced cardiac packages, low-dose protocols, AI-assisted reconstruction). Annual software costs: USD 15K–60K depending on what's included by default vs. what your team will want to add over time.
Training and ongoing education
Initial operator and biomedical training is included in installation. Ongoing CME, refresher courses for new staff, and software-update training: USD 5K–15K per year for a busy department.
Decommissioning and replacement
CT scanners typically run 8–12 years before replacement. The replacement decision starts being made around year 6 — that's when imaging-quality fall-off vs. current-generation systems becomes clinically apparent. Trade-in values for retired CT systems are non-zero but modest (USD 20K–80K refurbished).
Putting it together — 5-year total
For a refurbished 16-slice CT in a high-volume tertiary radiology department, the realistic five-year cost runs roughly 2.4–2.8× the purchase price. That figure is what should appear in the capital-expenditure justification, not the purchase price alone.
Hospitals that do this math up-front and budget honestly run CT operations smoothly. Hospitals that anchor on purchase price and discover the rest as the years progress are the ones with the unhappy CFO calls.
Reach out via our [equipment sales](/services/equipment-sales) and [maintenance](/services/maintenance) services for a sample five-year P&L tailored to your facility's volume, modality choice, and procurement structure. We model the math openly, including the line items you'd rather not think about until they hit.